Alberta pharmacists turn to social media to spread word about drug shortages

Nov. 20, 2018: There are shortages of just about every type of drug, according to Edmonton pharmacists and some say part of the problem is a program, meant to reduce costs, is shrinking supply. Su-Ling Goh explains.

“I posted a shot of my invoice from one of our drug orders to show that 50 per cent of it had not come,” said Suhas Thaleshvar, a prescribing pharmacist who also owns a Medicine Shoppe in Sherwood Park.

After the huge response to his post, Thaleshvar started thinking about ways to draw more attention to this issue.

“It was just impulsive that I posted that one photo and it went crazy,” he said.

“I just brainstormed… What if every pharmacy or every pharmacist, every pharmacy assistant, every pharmacy technician — everyone has access to social media — posted a story or a statistic or a photo or a video of some way the drug shortage affected their practice that day?”

“One thing I noticed when I did that post is (patients) were sort of looking to us to be an advocate,” he said. “This is a completely grassroots thing that several of us pharmacists decided to do.

“We just want the awareness out there to start asking some really tough questions as far as what Canada’s drug supply situation looks like?”

The second goal is to change the way drug policies in Canada are made or altered.

“Often decisions are made regarding drug policy without recognizing that pharmacists on the front line would have a very clear understanding of what the ripple effect of what certain policy changes could be and that we should be consulted.”

Watch below- Nov. 19, 2018: A Medicine Shoppe in Alberta is down to two bottles of Wellbutrin XL and a nation-wide drug shortage is forcing him to ration them out to already anxious patients. Su-Ling Goh reports.